Simply put: The story, characters, venue and performance of this book were predictable, threadbare and ultimately boring. The dialogue was so laden with crime novel cliches that I had to occasionally take a break to avoid the temptation to erase the entire book before continuing. Predictable tough guys with no depth of character litter this work throughout. Lecturing tomes about "how to", " only two ways to do", etc., ripped off from Lee Child and his Jack Reacher series, here fell flat and came across as condescending.

Geeky descriptions of fearsome weapons and unnecessarily graphic descriptions of grisly acts of violence could not compensate for shallow characters, shaky story line and cringe-inducing dialogue.

Jake Weber's performance was more distraction than entertainment. His efforts to portray hardened criminals as well as world-weary but soft-harted characters from society's fringe lacked subtlety and resulted in caricatures of criminals instead of believable persons. To be fair, the dialogue he was forced to work with inexorably led to this result.

Mr. Hobb's literary agent turned in the best performance here by somehow convincing Audible to showcase this first book as a must-read, breakout thriller.

I would, its a good story, but with poor character development. The Ghost is a college graduate, an ancient language geek who is smart enough to translate Ancient Greek, but somehow has no friends or family. A real loner. And there is his far fetched, almost supernatural ability to stare at a photo and begin looking like a stranger.

Weber does have a great voice, but reads way to slow. I listened at 1.5x speed just to get through it.

I enjoyed the details of each thief s role in a job. Least interesting was the lack of relationships between any of the characters. I enjoyed the idea of the relationship of our Ghost and the FBI, but it never happened. It would have been nice to see how the agent did her job, but we only saw the results.

Way to slow. Play it at 1.5x speed using the Audible app.

Actually, as I said before, I'd have him write about the police work with the same flair he applied to the crimes.

I liked this book. The narrator fit the character. The story drew me in and kept me listening to it every chance I had. There are a couple of characters I would have liked to know more about - Angela, the mentor for one and Rebecca, the FBI agent for another, but not enough to downgrade my five star designation. I'll listen to other books this author publishes

What a great audiobook. I hadn't read anything by Roger Hobbs before, but was eager to purchase and listen to this book because it was narrated by Jake Weber, one of my favorite actors. I wasn't disappointed. The story definitely kept my interest through the many twists and turns; I couldn't have guessed what was going to happen next. I grew to care for the protagonist and would read another book about the guy. Jake Weber did a most excellent job of narrating Ghostman. I hope Jake narrates more audiobooks!

1. Listen to the book at 1.5 times normal speed if you have any hope of being able to tolerate the narrator's abnormally slow paced reading and odd pauses mid sentence.
2. Lower your expectations for any type of suspense, drama or originality in the plot. "Twists and turns" are clumsily telegraphed way before the story catches up.
3. Prepare to hate the protagonist. You will wish for his capture or torturous death. Or both.
4. Seriously question Audible's recommendations from now on.

Top 5%

The Ghostman, of course. He is flawed and criminal yet you can put yourself in his shoes and see things from his perspective.

I enjoyed breaking it up into my commutes to absorb and think about it as I went along.

Great first novel. The book weaves 2 stories involving the same character at different times in a way that slowly lets you understand why the Ghostman is the person he is and why he is in his current situation. Like any good book, he teaches you a lot about the subject and makes you feel a part of the action. I listen to dozens of books a year and this is one of the best. I usually don't write reviews, but wanted to share this one with people who like criminal thrillers.

I thought this book was quite entertaining. A few observations...

1. The lack of relationships was criticized but in the context of a 'ghost man' I thought this was appropriate. The main character was ruthlessly pragmatic and ultimately unencumbered by emotional attachments.

2. There were similarities between Jack Reacher which was a plus since I am a huge fan of Lee Child. Just more of a good thing.

3. For me, personally, there were plenty of moments in the book where I was pleasantly surprised at the way the way the scenes played out. It was slick and clever.

So all in all, a solid freshman effort that I would recommend to anyone.

Top 10 great narration and the story was close to perfection

Some of Adrian McKinty's books

I think he got into the character very well and his variation of different accents was excellent.

Yes

One of the best audio stories I have listen to in a couple of years.

In a welcome change, the hero is the likeable criminal. Well written and well read.

Hobbs and Weber make a goo team. As a frequent reader of mystery fiction, I enjoyed listening to Ghostman.